500 Million-Year-Old Ancient Sea Creature Discovered


Half a billion years ago, scientists discovered a large and strange species of animal that lived in the primeval seas, when most of the first aquatic life was the size of a pea.

The newly discovered ancient sea creature is in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Earth Sciences at the University of Toronto. Assoc. Dr. Jean-Bernard Caron and Evolutionary Biology PhD student at the same university by Joe Moysiuk It was announced in a joint study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science. newly named Titanochorys Gainesi noted for its physical characteristics.

According to the study, this creature measures 19.7 inches (about half a meter), threatening smaller swimmers. predatory was an arthropod. called the Hurdiid, which takes innumerable forms. three-piece Characterized by an incredibly long head, Titanokory stunned scientists.

The comments of experts on the size of this huge animal are as follows:

Joe Moysiuk: “His head is so long relative to his body that these animals are really little more than swimming heads.”

Jean-Bernard Caron: “Its front limbs looked like multiple stacked rakes and would have been very effective at bringing to mouth anything they caught on their little spines. Its size is absolutely mind-blowing. This is one of the largest animals ever found from the Cambrian period.”

It is noteworthy that Titanokory has a giant swimming head as well as similar ones. As if that wasn’t weird enough, he has versatile eyes, a mouth covered with teeth in the shape of a pineapple slice, and a body structure with a set of wings for swimming. The researchers state that this discovered animal may have been the aquatic T-Rex of its time.

a prehistoric creature

Fossil shell of Titanocorys Gainesi. Jean-Bernard Caron / Royal Ontario Museum

Life on land in ancient times is thought to have been largely sterile. At that time, undersea animals played a large and frightening role in the seafloor ecosystems that dominated the planet.

Fossils in the Canadian Rockies in Kootenay National Park found. 500 billion years This new species, which is thought to have lived before Burgess Shale It is thought to be a larger relative of another extinct animal that was also found in its storage. A similar and more common species is called Cambroraster Falcatus. These two species may have fought for prey on the seafloor, the researchers say, making Titanocorys the equivalent of a prehistoric warrior.

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Titanocorys Gainesi, first published in the journal Royal Society Open Science on September 8, 2021, has been around since December. at the Royal Ontario Museum will be exhibited.

Source :
https://www.cnet.com/news/scientists-discover-massive-swimming-head-dating-back-500-million-years/